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True North Copper Ltd (ASX:TNC) has seen its share price rise more than 14% on news that mining and processing activities at the Cloncurry Copper Project (CCP) in Queensland are ramping up, as the company pushes towards production in the first quarter of 2025, once sulphide processing gets underway in the new year.
True North highlighted three activities in particular: beginning with the mining of around 223,000 bank cubic metres (BCM) of overburden – achieved since mining activities kicked off from the Wallace North deposit in July.
This has resulted in 22,000 tonnes of oxide ore being mined and placed on the RoM.
Additionally, there has been the transportation of oxide ore to the Great Australian Mine (GAM) since September, with around 8,300 tonnes crushed and stacked on the leach pad.
And finally, there is the ongoing irrigation of the leach pad, with this expected to boost copper production from True North’s solvent extraction (SX) plant.
These activities show that True North is on-schedule with its production preparation, boosting the parameters of its mining restart study (MRS) produced in February, which anticipated that CCP would generate free cash flow of approximatley $200 million at current copper spot prices over its initial 4.6-year mine life.
Toll milling is set to kick off in the first quarter, with the company guided by binding offtake and toll milling agreements with Glencore International AG (Glencore) for 100% of copper
concentrate from CCP and toll milling of up to 1Mt of ore per year.
True North Copper’s managing director Bevan Jones said the developments supported the company’s goal of becoming an Australian copper producer and critical mineral supplier at the CCP.
“Since our previous update in September, operations including our mining activities at Wallace North to the initial crushing and stacking activities at our Cloncurry Operations Hub (COH) have transitioned seamlessly,” he said.
“Our team at CCP should be commended for this progress, but the hard work is set to continue in the coming weeks as the crushing and stacking activities accelerate further.
“TNC’s upcoming milestones at CCP include increased PLS (pregnant leach solution) grade and volume reporting through to the SX plant in conjunction with the commencement of 24/7 mining operations at the Wallace North mine in Q4 2025.”
Mr Bevan added that True North was also building up its worksforce for the project, intending to establish a team of 100 people at the project by December.
At 12:50 AEDT, True North was trading at 3.2 cents – a rise of 14.29% since thr market opened.
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